The Holy Spirit can be seen in man when he does a good deed gladly, said Patriarch Daniel to believers on Sunday, at the Divine Liturgy service at the Patriarchal Cathedral, conducted together with Varlaam Ploiesteanul, suffragan bishop of the Patriarchy, and Timotei Prahoveanul, suffragan bishop of the Bucharest Archbishopric.
“The Holy Spirit can be seen in man when he does a good deed gladly. Not out of fear, but because he is a son of God by grace: he does a good deed, he builds a church, founds a family, works for the spreading of the belief as a son of God by grace with the joy not of a servant, but of a son”, the Patriarch emphasized.
The Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church (BOR) showed that the celebration of the Pentecost shows God’s love for the entirety of humanity.
“The Jews who were speaking other languages (…) represent the peoples who will come to Christ throughout history for he commanded his apostles saying ‘Go forth teaching all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to guard all that I have commanded you!’. That means Christ Pantocrator does not envision only the salvation of the Jewish people, but this salvation extend from the Jewish people to all nations, ethnicities, to all peoples”, said the Patriarch.
Emphasizing the spiritual meanings derived from the evangelic pericope of Saint John the Evangelist, the Patriarch said that this celebration shows us the connection between Christ who has ascended to Heaven and the Holy Spirit, whom the Father has sent to the world at the request of the Son.
“Christ ascends in glory, so that the Holy Spirit may descend in humility, with the purpose of extolling those faithful and humble in the Church of Christ,” the Patriarch explained.
The Orthodox faithful are celebrating, on Sunday, 50 days after the Resurrection of Jesus, the Pentecost, marking the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the assembly of apostles, in the form of tongues of fire, and they started preaching.
Although the Holy Spirit was present since creation, He descended upon the world fully in order to consecrate it only after the defeat of death and the return of Christ to the Father. Only then was the Holy Spirit able to descend upon the human nature rid of sin and redeemed and dwelt in those who have received Christ, according to church writings.
From the point of view of the Orthodox faith, on the day of the Pentecost, through the descent of the Holy Spirit a totally new organism appeared, a divine-human foundation, the Church.
In other words, the descent upon the apostles of the Spirit, the gifts and charismata received by them, the preaching and baptizing of the first three thousand people constitutes the foundation of the Christian church, both as a community of believers and as an institution. The Church is not, thus, only a human group associated in the same faith of God and nor is it only an institution bordered by dogma and laws. It is a communion of humans with God and God bears within him the Holy Spirit. Some Church Fathers have named the Church of Christ “the Holy Spirit living within man”.
Together with Easter, the Pentecost is the oldest Christian holiday, being celebrated ever since the time of the apostles. Up until the end of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth, the Pentecost was celebrated at the same time as the Ascension of Christ. After that the Ascension was moved to be celebrated 40 days after Easter, with the Pentecost becoming an independent celebration, Agerpres informs.
